


Remains of the Past

by StarRisen



Category: Animaniacs, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Gravity Falls, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Angst, Bendy just wants to be loved, Cussing, Discovery, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Ink, Magic, Rating May Change, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Tags may be added ahead of time, Vanitas is an ass, cartoon character death, cartoon logic, eventually, it will go back, so is Riku
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2020-12-17 17:26:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 18,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21058190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarRisen/pseuds/StarRisen
Summary: Feeling betrayed by his master, Vanitas returns after the events of kingdom hearts 3 as Vanitas remnant. Will he be able to earn everyones trust and create is own circle of friends or will things go haywire in these new circle of events?





	1. The Return

Not many years ago had he thought of it, the thought of ending it all and just becoming darkness itself, after all, he already looked like one of them, was treated like one of them by everyone…

…everyone, except Ventus, his other half, the light to his darkness.

The last time he had ever seen the blonde, he had told him that he had wanted to become the darkness, that that was who he wanted to be, who he was…

…was that true though? Did he want to be that or did someone else want him to be? Build him to be such a monster?

If he went back, would anyone accept him? No, he couldn’t possibly be accepted by anyone, not after all of the horrible things he’s done and look where that got him. Detached in an endless pit for the rest of eternity, abandoned by his master. The only person who might have wanted him back was Ventus with his stupid hair and his stupid face and that stupid smile.

He’d probably say something like ‘Did you want to be friends?’ or ‘Welcome back!’ or something completely stupid and his friends, oh, his pathetic, worthless friends.

Vanitas was tearing himself up at this point, but why? He had chosen his path, so why did he hurt? Ventus had offered him friendship and he turned it down just like he was supposed to. He tried to destroy Ventus after finding out that he couldn’t forge the Kai-blade, just like he was supposed to.

Was that wrong? It must have been, why else would his master leave him like that? Leave him to die in an empty pit.

There was a burn at the corner of his eyes and then something else… was he crying? Vanitas brought a hand up to his face, and there were indeed tears, but why was he crying? He had only been used, abused, abandoned, betrayed and offered freedom from it all… why did he reject that?

“ARGH! I’M SUCH AN, AN… I am such an idiot…” what now though? His golden eyes looked up into nothingness, a bright ray of- “Wait, what is that?” The next thing he knew, he had been plunged back into the realm of light but oddly enough, everything went dark again, but it didn’t feel empty or cold anymore.

What’s the word he’s looking for? Unconscious? He bolted upright looking around frantically, trying to figure out where he was but there was no indicator for his location, nothing except a mysterious tower that seemingly loomed overhead.

“Have I been here before?” he wondered aloud, trying to decide on whether or not he should go in. On one hand, if he went in, he could be safe from any possible threats and on the other hand, if he went in, he may find someone he doesn’t like. But like anyone else, curiosity got the better of him. “Alright, fine! I’m going in!” He reached for the door but a group of approaching voices stopped him.

He panicked and tried to summon his keyblade but for whatever reason, it wouldn’t appear which in itself was very wrong. He basically came back from the dead and now he can’t summon his weapon? What the hell is going on? This was obviously enough distraction that he hadn’t noticed the doors opening and getting odd stares from a group of familiar faces.

“Umm, hey, are you alright?” he heard a females voice asking. He had turned to see a particular blunette approaching him. “You seem like you’re having trouble with something!?” the rest of the group seemingly followed her unknowingly.

He looked over, noticing her approach, backing away somewhat.

This is it, he can’t summon his weapon, now he really is dead. It seemed that he had managed to back himself into a tree which he looked up at, cursed at under his breath, and then looked at Aqua. She had stopped with a deer in headlights look on her face.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you…”

He looked around nervously, confused as to why she was sounding nice, to him of all things. It was then that the redhead behind her made a comment. “Wow, sweet hair!”

“Huh? Wha- What’s wrong with my hair?” he grabbed a strand and studied the now absolutely snow white hair that was in his face, it almost had a glisten to it like snow. Wait, was his skin always this pale?

The brunette, Sora was it? made the next comment. “Woah, you look just like me! His clothes are even similar”

“And me!” of course Ventus had to chime in.

“Or me!” Wait, there are two of him?

He looked at them all and then looked over to Terra. The brunette had not made any sort of comment on him, nor has he said really anything. He looked skeptical of the situation. Good, although he seemed to snap out of it after he noticed the two had been staring at each other for a few minutes in total silence.

“Terra, do you recognize him?” Aqua interrupted.

He nodded, looking to his friend. “This may sound a bit crazy, but, he kind of looks like Vanitas!” Everyone looked at him, so Vanitas took this opportunity to attempt to escape. He snuck away from the tree and turned around, but as he looked around, it crossed his mind that, there had been nowhere to escape to. This world was small, so small that there was only a little bit of pathway and a larch fucking tower.

Oh my god why did there have to be literally nothingness.

This time he heard Ventus speak up. “But Vanitas had gold eyes not blue!”

He turned his head back to face them, swinging his entire body back around to look at the blonde. “MY EYES ARE BLUE?”

Ventus jumped back, not having expected that outburst.

“NEXT YOU’RE GOING TO BE TELLING ME I’M THE GOD DAMN SANTA CLAUSE!”

Everyone had gone silent, but Riku was the one to keep it going. “Well, you are turning red!” that stupid smirk on his face was only fire to the fule. Now the keyblade was summoned, sending everyone into a frenzy.

“Woah you’re a keyblade weilder?”

“It looks so cool!”

“Can I see?”

“It looks a lot like mine!”

“Cool! I have two!”

“It looks like Vanitas’s!”

Everyone looked over at Terra and then back at the ‘mysterious’ silver haired male.

“Do you want to know why?” Vanitas asked.

Terra cocked an eyebrow, the stare down beginning once again. “Sure, why?”

Vanitas flipped him the bird and with a smug smirk on his face, said “Fuck you, that’s why!”

Yes, he was now going to attempt to make the brunette flip his shit, and it was going to be fun watching him struggle to keep his cool. It was like a little game to him now. One on one, winner destroying the loser in a game of ‘darkness vs darkness’ to see how annoying he could be until someone manages to guess who he is.

This is going to be fun, but judging by how Aqua is covering Ven’s ears, the redhead is covering the other blonde’s ears, and Riku is covering Sora’s ears, he may have to keep his language down a bit… but what’s the fun in that?


	2. My First Adventure is Looking Like a Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A supposedly unreachable world without heartless is not without its monsters. Vanitas finds himself in a pretty freaky situation. Without the use of his keyblade, what is he to do. As a creature of darkness no longer in his element, how is he suppose to defend himself?

He had been brought up to Yen Sid and it was extremely uncomfortable. Everyone was asking him questions and flailing around randomly. It was starting to get boring. Wait, did I say starting. It was boring the moment he had been shoved into the room.

He looked up at the bookshelves, thinking that maybe there was something interesting there. He reached for one and pulled it out of the book case, opening it and then putting it back. He did this a few times with different books. Fairytales. Yeesh, did this old guy have anything else?

Meanwhile, the group had still been gathered around the desk of a specific warlock.

“Yes, I understand your concerns! I sense that he can be quite dangerous, friend or foe, to you and to himself!”

“So he is dangerous!”

“He can be, after all, he is your old foe, Vanitas!”

Vanitas was sifting through some other books when he found an interesting looking journal. It looked old and torn and it appeared to have a spyglass with it. When he flipped it over, there was the number 3 with what looked to be a six fingered hand on the cover. He was about to open it when

“HE’S WHAT?”

He turned to listen in on them, shoving the book into some kind of sub-spacial storage that only he could access. It looked interesting enough.

“What do you mean, he’s Vanitas?”

“He is, but he isn’t! He is what remains of Vanitas, the part that was unable to be killed off by the darkness! He is Vanitas Remnant! His heart can be rebuilt, whether it be with the warmth of light or with chilling darkness is up to him!”

Vanitas turned away again. He wasn’t complete, maybe that’s why he looks the way he does. Taking notice of a mirror on the wall, he had realized he had yet to see what he looked like so with a casual stroll, he peered in. Hair as white as snow, eyes as blue as the sky, and pale, fair skin.

He touched a hand to his face, staring in disbelief that he could possibly change appearances like this. He wasn’t complete, he has never been complete. He looked back at the group, all still talking, so he shrugged, sat down, pulled out that book and started reading. Their talk was probably going to take a while.

At one point he reached a page with some odd code on it. “Hey, warlock guy!” Everyone looked at him like he just disrespected Zeus himself. “What the hell is Weirdmageddon?” he stood and walked to the desk, placing the book down on the desk, showing him the code. “And who the hell is Bill Cipher?”

Yen Sid went pale as he stared at the pages and then looked up at Vanitas in disbelief. “You are able to decipher this?”

“Anyone and their mother could read that!”

“Xehanort has taught you then?”

“No… and don’t ever mention that name in my presence again!”

Yen Sid nodded in agreement but then looked down back at the book, everyone else now taking interest.

“Weirdmageddon is the end of all worlds as we know them and Bill Cipher, he is the one who is to destroy them, however, these events have already occurred and Bill Cipher has already been stopped.”

“Right… so then the question is, where are the other two?”

The old warlock looked at him in confusion. “Other two?”

“Well, yeah, this is journal 3 isn’t it?” he closed up the book and pointed to the cover and the warlock stood

“How could I have not seen this sooner?”

“Seen what?” Sora looked confused and concerned.

“Sora, I must ask you to do one more quest!”

Vanitas stared at them in disbelief and with a sarcastic tone “Wow Vanitas, great job Vanitas, thank you so much for reading to me from a book that has failed at existing Vanitas, you should go find the others Vanitas!” and then the awkward stares. Maybe he shouldn’t have done that, but as soon as Sora was about to agree, Yen Sid spoke.

“Are you offering to find the other two?”

“Wait, what?”

Sora was about to say something again, but he was to slow.

Well, Vanitas has done it this time. He just had to open his big mouth and he even said he would go alone.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?” he yelled as he flew through space, his newfound magical fairy armor, which had been black and white, protecting him from the icy clutches of the endlessness, keyblade being his vehicle.

He had been expecting the odd heartless here or there and even the occasional rock, but he was not expecting to have a blue ball of fluff ram into him, sending him way off course and towards a new location, one he never even noticed due to the inky blackness surrounding it.

As he fell towards it, he glared at and cursed the blue ball flying away, stopping when it yelled something along the lines of an apology and then darkness. Once again, more darkness. But this was different. It was as if it was trying to suck him in, swallow him if you will. It was thick like glue but at the same time, smooth like water. Only black, and too thick to swim in.

Was there ever going to be a time when he wasn’t in darkness? At least his armor was protecting him from suffocating… or something.

It had felt like an hour had passed before he made it through the liquid barrier of the world but he had and it was great, but that had been one thick wall. Never had he ever seen a barrier quite like that one, they were normally covered in magical clouds or already shrouded in darkness. This wasn’t darkness that surrounded this world, no, it was something else.

He pulled the journal out from the subspace and looked at it. There were some interesting theories or whatever in it, but nothing about other worlds, there were however writings of different dimensions. Good to know that there is an alternate reality where he wins… probably. He shoved the book back into storage and decided to have a look around.

The world didn’t look that big, probably about the same size as that warlock’s world. And then he turned around. Behind him was a massive building, who knows how big it was, but it didn’t appear that anyone was occupying it.

The windows were boarded up, the surrounding nature was dead, probably due to the barrier blocking out the natural light, and leaking? There were sounds of dripping hitting the ground and his armor. Figuring it for the best, he decided to keep his armor on for this one. That black liquid let off a strange aura, it just wasn’t normal, but it wasn’t magical either, so then what was it?

He looked at the black puddles that were surrounding him, noticing that they were beginning to bubble. “Hmm, that doesn’t look good… and are they… moving?” the entire puddle was moving and before he knew it, he was surrounded by a multitude of large, black, bubbling puddles. He was almost tempted to get a closer look, but he remembered the first his first training session with his master, no, that traitor.

Always keep your guard up if something seems off.

This was way off. He tried to summon his keyblade again, and it wouldn’t come. “FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC, here one minute and gone the next… what, are you having a spa day or somethi-?”

He was caught off guard for sure when something popped out of the puddle in front of him. He stared at it but dodged as it lunged at him, more of those odd looking creatures popping out of the surrounding puddles and attacking him. He managed to teleport out of the circle of blackness and next to the door of the massive abandoned building.

Those things were looking around for him, and it didn’t take long for them to find him, a hoard of them all charging at once. Vanitas couldn’t summon his keyblade and he had never been taught magic, hence he had no way to defend himself. He plastered himself up against the door, hand bumping the doorknob. Once he heard the metal clang of his armor on the handle, he began attempting to open the door, but it was locked.

He kept struggling with it and it wouldn’t budge. He plastered himself back onto the door watching them close in on him, and then there was a clicking sound of the knob. It just unlocked. He didn’t even hesitate to run in. he opened the door, ran inside and closed it behind him. The slam of those creatures could be heard against the door and wall and with a triumphant laugh he turned to face the building.

Abandoned, as he though. But it looked like that black liquid was all over inside to. It was so quit, and then, in the silence, there was a deafening ‘Click’.

He turned to see the lock of the door. It could only be locked and unlocked by a key, inside and out and judging by the sound that he had just heard, he just got locked in with whatever may be lurking in this abandoned building.


	3. Ink Puddles and Demon Cuddles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being trapped in a mysterious building in a mysterious world, Vanitas finds himself being followed. Oddly enough, it seems to be friendly, a little to friendly for his liking, but hey, it's been here longer than he has and it knows where to go. Whether it's useful or not depends on this little ink monster.

“Ok Vanitas, this isn’t so bad… it’s just an empty building most likely infested with uncontrollable monsters! I mean, it’s not like I need my keyblade to defend myself… or magic…” Vanitas took notice of something on the wall and shrugged. “I’ll just use this… this uh… axe… this will work… right? It’s not that different from a keyblade, yeah, I’ll just have to go find the keys…”

There was a thud against a door, causing him to jump and let out a yelp. It looked like the creatures weren’t able to get in, but he wasn’t able to get out in turn. The question was whether he was safe or not.

He took his first few hesitant steps forwards, a single thought going through his mind. ‘I’m gonna die again, I’m gonna die again, I’m gonna die again!’ and as soon as he made it to the end of the hall, there was nothing. No danger, no impending doom, just him and his odd terror.

Why was he scared? He’s a creature of darkness! A creature of darkness who is in a world that has no heartless or unversed to control, can’t use his keyblade and hasn’t learned how to use magic that isn’t related to darkness. Normal people can do something like this, why can’t he? Maybe because he’ll die for real this time if he messes up. At least he has his armor to protect him.

As if karma herself were standing next to him, jinxing him, his armor retracted back to its original state. Did the universe just hate him or something or did it have something to do with the lack of mana in this world?

“Lack of magic! Something is absorbing this world’s mana!” he gulped in realization to his new situation. “This lack of mana made my magic armor retract… and I’m not so sure I’m ready to meet the thing that’s absorbing it!”

As he looked around the room, he noticed something to his right. It was a sign, but everything had been blacked out. Odd.

“Hmm, well, I guess I’m going down this way!” He walked towards the first hallway, taking note of posters and cutouts that were placed here and there. A few had caught his attention, but nothing of real interest to him.

It didn’t take him long to come across the first door in the hallway, which he ignored and walked past, that is, until he heard a peculiar, loud squeaking sound. As he turned back around, axe in hand, ready to strike, the door stopped opening.

He took a few hesitant steps towards it and used the axe to push it open the rest of the way, slowly, dreading what could possibly be on the other side, but again, there was nothing. What filled the room was a desk covered in papers and spotted with ink. Deciding to walk inside, he had kicked something on the floor that made a metallic sound as it rolled.

A can.

He picked it up.

A can of bacon soup.

He gave it a concerned look, unsure as to what he should make of it. There was no possible way that this CAN, opened the door, so why would that be his first thought? But for whatever reason, he decided to shove it into his weird subspace, almost surprised by the fact that it still worked, until it didn’t. Whatever was eating this world’s mana source, it was consuming his as well.

He looked back at the can that he held, deciding to just shove it into his pocket instead. It may come in handy eventually. Maybe.

He was about to turn back to leave when the sound of heavy breathing from behind him caught his attention and it sent shivers up his spine. The look he could feel this thing giving him was almost predatory, but Vanitas was not about to turn and find out. The next thing he knew, the heavy breathing was being followed by sniffing and growling. He shuddered, reaching his hand into his pocket, turning and then throwing the can at whatever had been standing behind him, only for the can to hit a wall with nothing in the way.

Had he just imagined those sounds? But there was no way! The breath on his neck had felt far too real and the growling had sent shivers up his spine. He could sense the presence of something there, but, it was just gone. He looked around the room starting from the four walls around him, the ceiling and then the floor. Oh, the floor!

There was a large black puddle that hadn’t been there when he had walked in, and it was bubbling, just like the puddles that were outside. He waited, axe in hand, ready to fight, but nothing happened. Nothing was leaping from that puddle, nothing was trying to kill him.

With a suspicious look, he crept around the puddle and out of the door, turning to make his way through the rest of the hallway, but all the way down, he could swear he was hearing footsteps behind him.

Great, he was either going crazy, or he was being stalked by mana eating blob monsters, neither of those sounded like good options, but every time he turned around to look, there was nothing but an odd bubbling puddle on the floor or a dripping mess on the ceiling.

He had been wondering around the building for a while, the ups and downs, twists and turns beginning to confuse him. He was lost, and this weird, black, bubbling puddle was still following him like a lost puppy that had nothing better to do.

“What do you want?” he finally asked it. “You want a hug or something, because I don’t do hugs!” the puddle seemed to bubble more, sounding more like growls for than bubbling. “If this is because of the whole ‘me throwing a can at you’ thing, I’m sorry, just stop following me! It’s weird enough being followed by blob monsters, the growling just makes it worse!”

At this point the puddle stopped bubbling, moved to the wall and started climbing it, now writing.

“Do you know them?”

Great, this thing was intelligent. “Who?”

“The creators!?”

“Nope, and you know what? I’d probably strangle them if I did, I mean, who makes a building like this and gets away with it? Do they want people to get lost in it?”

The blob sank back down to the ground, leaving the writing behind, bubbling once again, but this time, more aggressively. Vanitas stepped back, worried about what this thing was trying to do, whether he should be scared or not.

A gloved hand shot out of the puddle, causing Vanitas to just back in a panic, getting ready to throw the axe and run.

Another gloved hand emerged from the puddle, then a head, a head with melted over eyes, then a body, then the legs and feet.

It looked up at the silver haired male, a large grin on its face as it began to wipe away whatever was covering it, revealing cartoony, pie-cut eyes that shouldn’t have any biological way of working.

He watched it do a small dance and hold out its hand for a handshake; that grin on his face showing all forms of innocence.

Vanitas wasn’t impressed. “I don’t do handshakes, now quit following me! I’m trying to find a way out!” he turned to leave but stopped when he felt something grab his leg. He looked down to see the little cartoon latched to his leg, a now desperate expression painted his face.

“Hey, get off!” Vanitas tried to shake it off of him, losing his balance in the process. He fell to the floor with a thud, the armor covering his hand making a metallic clang as it hit the floor. This allowed the toon time to crawl onto him and wrap its arms and legs around his torso to the point of being irremovable. “What the hell?”

He struggled to remove the toon, only for it to cling to him tighter, showing no signs of letting up any time soon. He stopped and laid down on the floor, waiting for this thing to loosen its grip and within the first 5 minutes or so, it did.

“What do you want from me?” he asked it as he looked down at it. The toon returned the stare with sad eyes, still not wanting to let go, even as Vanitas gave it the irritated glare it clearly deserved. “Look, at this point, I don’t care if you’re clinging to me, as long as you’re going to be useful to me!”

It nodded, crawled its way up his torso and gave him a hug. Vanitas stood up, annoyed as the toon climbed around him and latching onto his back. It pointed forward towards a seemingly random hallway, but Vanitas decided to take it anyways. He had nowhere else to go after all and this thing has been in this building far longer than he has, so following the direction that had been pointed out, he walked, completely forgetting the axe that he had dropped.


	4. Coming to an Understanding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Important Plot Filler  
Vanitas and Bendy begin the bond of friendship or something like that and begin a new quest in this world.

The hallway went on seemingly forever, Vanitas and Bendy moving forward in silence, Bendy still clinging to the silver haired males back like his life depended on it, the only sounds being the black liquids that dripped into larger puddles, but nothing out of the ordinary came of it.

In fact, he hadn’t seen anything weird since this little black and white cartoon attached itself to him.

“So… can you talk?” his blue eyes eyed the toon cautiously, still unsure about its presence.

Bendy shook his head slowly, looking to the ground in disappointment, but perking up.

It almost seemed like he wasn’t able to stop smiling, which had to be absolute torcher. Vanitas would have offed himself if he were stuck like that, so thank the gods he wasn’t. He looked forward again, taking the twists and turns the little toon pointed to, each turn getting them seemingly more lost by the second.

With a dull sigh, Vanitas looked back at Bendy once again. “Do you even know where we are or are we just lost?”

The toon shrugged.

That was it, Vanitas was about flip his shit. “You don’t know?”

Bendy shrugged again and tugged at the back of his shirt to stop him. He pointed towards an opening and had Vanitas walk in, stopping at two signs, one saying ‘The Devil’ and the other saying ‘The Angel’, both pointing in opposite directions.

Bendy hopped off of his shoulders and stared at the signs, thinking for a few seconds, and then a few minutes.

“Okay, I’m going this way!” Vanitas decided to go the Angel route since that just sounded better, but stopped when Bendy hopped back up to his back. It was kind of funny, because he didn’t seem to weigh anything and then he stopped being funny when he covered Vanitas’s eyes and tried to pull him the other way. “Hey, cut that out!”

Well, Bendy didn’t stop, so Vanitas decided to walk. He was going to go this way one way or another and no black and white cartoon was going to stop him.

With a bit of struggle, they went through the door, and Bendy stopped trying to turn him around. He stared into the empty room like he was expecting to see something. He hopped off of Vanitas once again and started to frantically look around everywhere, under old sofa cushions, under tables, on top of shelves, inside of broken flower pots, you name it, he looked there, but he clearly couldn’t find what he was looking for.

Vanitas watched Bendy sit on the floor and let out a depressed sigh, a miserable look in his eyes, but never the less, still smiling, then crying.

Vanitas actually felt kind of bad for this little guy for whatever reason. Not entirely sure why, he went over and sat next to the little, crying toon, picking up what looked like an old piece of paper and handing it to him. He stopped when he noticed Bendy was melting, ink covering the little toons, pie cut eyes.

“Uh… do you melt often?”

The ink demon took hold of the paper and began to write on it, like he was in a rush.

‘**Why am I such a failure?**’

“What do you mean?”

‘**They lied to us!**’ Bendy began to growl, the action not intimidating the other male.

“Well guess what, suck it up! I’ve been lied to for my whole existence and I think I turned out fine!”

Bendy looked at him for a moment, ink now completely covering his eyes.

“I mean, who cares if my master beat me, used me and then left me for dead?! I don’t need him anyways!”

The toon wiped some of the ink away, surprised by the sudden outburst.

“I mean, I only FUCKING DID EVERYTHING FOR HIM! STUPID OLD MAN, WHY DID HE HAVE TO LET ME DIE?!” Vanitas froze when he felt the little toon hug him, feeling the toon cry into him and that was when the reality hit him.

Bendy understood.

He knew what Vanitas was going through. He was scared, sad, confused and angry, just like he was.

“Did they hurt you?” Vanitas had to ask, feeling Bendy nod.

This thing may not have a soul, but it certainly had a heart and its heart was falling apart quickly. Bendy was trying desperately to find something to help keep him together, to keep him from falling to the darkness.

Vanitas stood from Bendy’s grasp, picking him up and hugging him. He thought for a minute, realizing how much sense things were starting to make. Bendy just wanted a friend, he didn’t want anything to do with the person who hurt and left him, but why was he so desperate then? What was he looking for?

“Did they hurt your friends?”

Bendy nodded again, holding him tighter. If what he thought was true, then Bendy may have been alone for a long time, slowly tearing himself apart by his own suffering.

“Fine, let’s find a way out of here… together!”

He could feel the toon continue to cry, and just decided to keep holding him, after all, this is what he’s seen Aqua do for Ventus when he would cry, maybe it would work here to? Honestly, he was just guessing at this point; Affection was a completely different language to him. Maybe he should copy what she says to? Yes? No? This was all too weird for him.

“Hey, it’s… alright… I’m uh… here for you… or whatever…” he cringed at his attempt to copy his enemies friend as he patted the demons back, hoping that he would at least be able to calm the little guy down enough to keep moving.

It didn’t work, or at least, it didn’t seem like it did, considering the little toon grabbed onto him tighter, his crying dying down, but his breathing getting heavier. Oh god, was he having trouble breathing? Was he going to be responsible for this things death? Shit, the last thing he was told before leaving the tower was to make friends, not kill them.

After a few minutes, all sounds of crying stopped. Maybe it really did work. Who knew he was good with cartoon monsters.

Bendy pointed to a new sheet of paper and the two sat down on the sofa so he could write.

‘**I hid a key in here, but it’s gone now!**’

Vanitas nodded, not really understanding. “Ok, what’s so important about this key?”

Bendy stared at the paper, thinking about how to write what he was thinking.

‘**It’s the key to the exit…**’

“WAIT, WHAT?”

‘**Someone or something else here has it! We need to get it back if we ever want to get out of here!**’

With a nod, Vanitas stood and pointed to his back. “Get on, we’re about to hunt down a key!”


	5. The Calm Before The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We return to the group that we left behind at the Mysterious Tower, their concerns now only growing for the one they sent on a ruthless mission, Aqua being the only one to truly notice the issues that befell our main character in the first two chapters.  
Yen Sid shows everyone the current situation, but will it set everyone's minds at ease or will it worry them more?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, as i'm writing this chapter, i'm trying to decide whether or not it's important. I decided to write this before bed though, so it may not be as good as the other chapters. Enjoy!

“Hey, are you ok Aqua?”

The blunette looked up at her friend and smiled, showing a bit of sadness. “Ven, do you think it was ok sending Vanitas out there by himself?”

The blonde tilted his head, but gave her a sad smile. “Aqua… Vanitas is my other half, kind of like a brother I guess… I’m worried about him to!”

“It seemed like he was having some problems summoning his keyblade when we first noticed him! You don’t think that’ll affect his mission… right? Does he even know magic?”

“What do you mean?”

“He never finished his training with Xehanort, and I don’t remember the last time Xehanort had ever used magic… he would always manipulate the darkness…” she looked at the ground. “And he isn’t quite whole anymore! When you were first brought to us, you had so much trouble summoning your keyblade, our master said that it was because your heart was incomplete…”

The blonde looked around for a moment, trying to think of something that could possibly ease her mind. “Aqua, he can control the darkness with a wave of his hand, plus, he has magic armor that the good fairies made him to protect him!”

She still seemed worried. “I know he has never been a good person, but I still can’t help but worry about him!”

“I’ll tell you what!” Ventus perked right up, an idea coming to mind. “Why don’t we ask master Yen Sid to check on him, he can tell us how he is, right?”

She stood up, a smile now on her face. She nodded, and began walking to the tower, Ventus following close behind her.

The two walked up the stairs and to the room that they would find the warlock, eagerly approaching his desk, the two of them asking in unison to know Vanitas’s current state of wellbeing.

“You two wish to know if he is alright, Sora was worried as well!” he gestured to the brunette who was playing a board game of some kind with Riku, Kairi and Mickey. “Sora, you were wanting to know about Vanitas?”

The brunette looked back at him, everyone at the table taking the opportunity to rush to the table. Axel and Terra emerged from the door the good fairies are usually in, probably teaching the pyromaniac how to use his keyblade, the two taking quick notice of the gathering and following suit.

“So, what are we looking at here?” The red head nudged Sora playfully.

“Everyone is curious how Vanitas is!”

The group went quite, the warlock closing his eyes, magic attempting to show the current whereabouts of Vens other half. “He is in a world, one that has been covered in a suffocating shroud!”

“But the armor should have protected him… right?” Terra asked, trying to keep up the tough guy act, sounding more like a brother concerned for his delinquent little sibling.

“Yes, it has managed to protect him, and allowed him to pass through the barrier safely, though, not without consequence!”

The concerned looks were growing, Mickey looking between everyone, then to his master. “Gosh, well… what do you mean?”

“His abilities have been drained by this barrier and as long as it remains, he will be unable to gather mana as one normally would!”

Aqua slammed her palms against the edge of the table, a look of dread spreading across her face. “You’re saying that he’s alone, on a world no one knows anything about, unable to use his armor, magic, keyblade or abilities?”

Yen Sid continued in further, inky black blob monsters appearing, scratching at the door to a mysterious building. “He is inside of the building, away from the creatures you see-”

“So he’s safe?”

“Yes, for now, however, he carries a burden on his shoulders!”

The view zoomed in on him, everyone now noticing a tiny creature sitting on his shoulders, pointing in seemingly random directions.

Kairi let out a giggle, taking note of the odd black and white creature. “That creature is kind of cute!”

“That creature is currently the only thing standing between him and certain doom!”

The blunette took her turn again. “What do you mean?”

“The monsters of this world appear to fear this tiny creature, which means that this creature must hold some kind of power, power that can both help and harm him if Vanitas isn’t carful, however, it would appear that the two have formed the beginning of a bond, one of understanding!”

Sora tilted his head, confusion on his face. “A bond of understanding? What does that mean?”

With a sweet smile, Kairi decided to answer. “Everyone here understands the other! We all know where we came from and we all know what we’ve been through, but what’s important is that we accepted each other for it, that we didn’t judge the other for what we’ve done and why we’ve done it!”

The group gave a nod, returning their attention back to Vanitas.

“So, the two understand each other and have accepted each other for their flaws?” the blunette smiled. “He’s making his first friend!”

“Indeed, but that does not make him safe!”

“What? But those monsters are locked outside!”

“That may be true, but there are other monsters lurking inside, monsters that, if Vanitas doesn’t have his new ally, will drag him into a world in which he shall never return!”

The shudder that went through everyone, they all knew that it would not leave them until Vanitas had returned to them. They knew that that would be the only thing to calm them at this point.

If that little cartoon leaves his side for a moment, Vanitas could be dead.


	6. Projections of Hate and Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo is still exploring the studio and have yet to find a way out, but they manage to find an important item lying about. Lets see how the living film real feels about having these two running around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while since I last updated, I seem to pull this with a bunch of my stories, LOL! It's almost 4:00 AM now and I still can't sleep. In all honesty, I'm still trying to come up with ideas for how this story is going to progress further in the future. I just kind of start typing and the words just come to me. This will be the one story i keep coming back to because I enjoy this concept so much.

Not once had Vanitas sensed anything off about Bendy, but there were so many questions, and the little toon probably had the same things to ask, things such as ‘If you’re supposed to be a cartoon, how did you get here?’ or ‘What happened to the people that worked here?’ But of course, there was a time and place for those questions.

One of his biggest questions however was whether this tiny toon could be trusted or not. Bendy actually seemed rather attached to his newfound companion, which in itself is disturbing. Why trust someone you just met, and why ask such a strange question to begin with? Was he planning to attack? If he was the reason mana disappeared in this world, Vanitas felt he could end up in a world of trouble. Magic doesn’t just disappear, meaning that would make this creature powerful.

Vanitas seemed to have been trapped in his thoughts, not noticing that Bendy had been trying to grab his attention, finally looking back at him once the demon had yanked at his hair. “What?” he hissed.

Bendy sat frozen on his shoulders, staring down the hallway at something. It was a look of shock and anger, as his grin began to widen, teeth turning to sharp fangs. The growl he let out was menacing and abnormal, for a creature of the light that is.

Vanitas turned his head back to face what his companion was growling at, but was quickly blinded by a bright light. He raised a hand to shield himself from the blinding light, a roar quickly following behind; that was when he knew that he was going to have to either fight or run.

Bendy continued to growl, some of his features beginning to either melt or warp, but none the less, stayed put on the silver haired male’s shoulders, probably black again due to the dried up ink. Oh, what he would give to not be in the ink anymore.

Almost within an instant the creature charged them, the light getting closer, but somehow smaller, allowing Vanitas to get a better look at the charging beast. It had a black, almost human-like body that dripped with the black liquid, but the head of a projector.

That definitely wasn’t right.

Bendy began to pull at his hair again, pointing towards the creature that was charging.

Was he expecting Vanitas to fight it, without his weapon?

Almost as if on que, his keyblade appeared in hand. He didn’t have time to question his bi-polar weapon right now, so he took he took his stance to fight, Bendy hopping off of his shoulders, prepared to fight alongside him.

The Projectionist looked between the two, making a swift move towards the one with color, another roar being released from only god knows where, and raised its hand to attack.

Vanitas braced himself, prepping his keyblade to block, but the attack didn’t come. He looked up at his assailant, finding a large, cartoony hammer in the wall with the creatures arm smashed in with it. He turned his attention to the toon whom of which was making some silly taunting actions, only angering the Projectionist more. It decided to go after the toon this time, but they were both ready for it.

As the Projectionist charged Bendy, Vanitas threw a few slashes of his keyblade at its back, Bendy Throwing a random can of bacon soup he found on the floor at its face before retreating to the other side of the hallway to where the hammer was.

The thing charged again, Vanitas jumping out of the way as it made another swing at him, Bendy then running up behind him, jumping from his shoulders with the cartoon hammer, and smashing the Projectionist to the floor with a single blow.

The two watched as it tried to stand, but the toon wouldn’t let that happen. He threw another blow and another, hammering away at it. Vanitas watched in shock as he viewed the anger in the toons eyes. Despite that mask of happiness, there was malice, malice for someone and he didn’t know how else to deal with his anger than through violence.

“BENDY!” Vanitas shouted. The toon froze, Projectionist gone, melted away to become one with the ink forever. “Bendy, what the hell?”

Bendy looked back at him, half of his face having had been melted over, the one eye left showing fear. What could something like him be afraid of? He dropped his hammer and stared into the ink puddle of what use to be someone special and backed away.

“Hey, Bendy, what-”

The toon looked back up at Vanitas, staring at his blue eyes and ran away. Vanitas tried shouting out to the toon, calling for him to come back, but he was gone. He began to run to the toon when he stepped on something. He looked down to find a book, a very familiar book.

He tried to open his subspace, and it actually worked. He pulled out journal 3 and compared it to-

Journal 1.

He quickly shoved them back in, seeing that his subspace was closing rapidly, decidedly pursuing after what he thought could be his first… maybe friend? But… Bendy was just gone. He had run to a dead end, and just disappeared.

What the hell is happening in this god forsaken place?


	7. Angels of Doom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas gets to encounter a new character and a brand new quest begins again. oh goody. more stuff.

Vanitas walked on through the studio, trying to find Bendy wherever he may be, looking behind doors and in ink filled hallways, but he was just gone. He could feel his chest tighten with ever second that passed, ever second the thought about him.

That thing wasn’t any of his concern anymore and yet, something deep down told him to find the toon as soon as possible. What if something bad happens to the little guy, like one of those ink monsters pop up out of nowhere and…

Or what if… no that’s stupid. He literally slaughtered a film monster… and yet… he seemed so scared, and what was up with his face? He wasn’t one of them, was he?

Well, it turns out that he really needed to watch his step in this place, because he ended up tripping over a pipe and falling through the floor face first, and it hurt like hell.

He managed to slow his descent with the darkness, allowing him to prevent any serious injuries, but it looked like that was a bad idea. He landed on his feet and heard slow applause from behind him.

“Well, well, what have we here?”

A chuckle echoed through the new room, sending a chill up his spine. With a slow turn, he took note of a girl. She would have been absolutely beautiful if it wasn’t for half of her face which looked like it had been torn open.

She stopped her applause and smirked. “A human? We don’t get many of those around here!”

“Who are you?” stupid question, she looked like that girl from those posters that were scattered around.

“Who am I? WHO AM I?” she practically screeched, causing him to jump back. She let out a laugh at his reaction and then in what was probably the sweetest voice she could muster, she said “I’m Alice Angel, sugar, the real star of the show! Do. Not. Forget. It!” that last part sounded like a threat.

“Right… well um… I’m Vanitas!”

She giggled and danced around, that was when a little metallic sound caught his attention. He looked down at her hips and found a ring of keys hanging from them. Shit, those were the keys that he needed to get out.

She walked up to him and looked him in the eyes, making him a bit nervous. “You know, you’re kind of cute! Maybe I can help you, but only if you help me!”

“Oh? H-help you with what?” this girl was beginning to freak him out. He could look past the face thing, but he was starting to figure out that this girl was a loon.

“I need to become perfect, beautiful, like her!” She gestured to a poster of herself. “But to do that, I need a few more things!”

He took a step back, not wanting her to close to him, until he hit a wall. “And what would those things be?”

She giggled again and reached her hand out to him, trailing her fingers up one of his arms. “I am in need of a few hearts from the beasts that roam the halls down here, some gears, a wrench and a syringe!” her voice quickly darkened. “Simple enough, don’t you think?”

“And if I refuse?”

She traced her hand to his neck and gripped it, tight, lifting him off of the ground, letting out a laugh as he kicked and squirmed. “Oh, believe me, you won’t! I know how fragile you humans are!” she shrugged. “And if you die, I can just find myself a new errand boy!” she let go of him, letting him drop to the ground. She looked down at him and grinned. “And if you’re a good boy, I’ll give you this!” She dangled an axe in front of him by the handle.

He growled but nodded. “Right… I can try!”

She dropped the axe and walked to a wall, cackling. “Oh yes, and I need one more thing!” she looked over her shoulder at him.

“And what would that be?”

She darkened again. “I need the ink from the thing that sees all! I need the ink demons ink! Meet me on floor 9 once you have gathered everything!” she walked through the wall, her laugh being the last thing he heard.

He sat on the ground stunned. “I-ink demon? Something that sees all? Great, sounds like a boss fight!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for this chapters lateness, but I think if was worth the wait! Alice Angel finally gets her introduction. Something tells me Vanitas is going to be here for a while.


	8. An Angels Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas is out to find the items, but finds a lack of enemies, and perhaps a new ally.

“Ok, so I need to find some gears, a wrench, syringe and the ink of the ink demon?” Vanitas walked down the hall, having to consider how he was going to get any of that. He hasn’t even encountered this ‘Ink Demon’ let alone seen it. Alice spoke about it like it was some terrifying monster… “If he’s as bad as she says, then why doesn’t he show himself?”

He stopped when he encountered a dead end. “Fuck!” He looked around for a moment, trying to see if there was anything potentially useful there. There was a desk covered in papers with a broken chair laying on the floor. Anything useful? He fiddled with the axe he held in thought. “What if something appears out of nowhere? I’ve been lucky not to encounter anything yet, but… ARGH!!! I need to find whatever it is that’s draining my mana and then get the fuck out of this hell hole!”

There was a sudden, deep, dark thought that made the pit of his stomach drop. “Even if I get the keys, that barrier is in the way… there was a large mana build up there though, so maybe… I need to find whatever it is that is draining my mana! No mana equals no barrier!”

A groan echoed from somewhere in the dead end, grabbing his attention. He looked around for a moment, trying to find where it may have come from, realizing suddenly that it came from the poster that sat over the desk. “Was there always a poster there?” he investigated it a bit, taking note of 3 characters and the words ‘the butcher gang’.

Taking a step closer, a gurgling sound was heard from it again. What was it? He fell to the floor and let out a small scream when something tore through it and charged him. He barely managed to scramble to his feet in time, avoiding a blow from the thing.

He grabbed his axe and began swinging it at the little bastard, dodging the little shits blows and landing seemingly effective ones back onto it. It had gotten him a couple of times, causing him to bleed out some but with one final hit, Vanitas was victorious. He watched it fall to the floor and squirm around a bit before stopping. It began melting and let out a few groans and gurgles, and Vanitas could have sworn it said “don’t trust angels…” but then again, it could have just been the unintelligent gurgles of a dying monster.

Vanitas scoffed as it melted away but stared at the item it had dropped. The little bastard had a gear on it for some reason or another, but that appeared to be 1 out of 2 gears. 1 more to go and then he can worry about finding the other items.

He grabbed it and began walking away from the dead end, axe held tightly in his grip, blood dripping from his left arm. He supposed he didn’t need his keyblade here since the place seemed rather void of the heartless. They were probably unable to pass through the barrier, the heavy amounts of mana and ink preventing them from coming in.

He looked up at a shelf as he was passing by, surprised to see another gear, but shrugged and took it. “Hey, this is pretty easy!”

Footsteps caused him to stop as he pocketed the seemingly massive thing. He looked around in front of him only to see nothing, when he heard the sounds of heavy breathing and slight growling behind him.

Great, it’s the thing from earlier…

Wait, the last time he had heard those noises, Bendy appeared, but this thing didn’t sound like him at all. Come to think of it, the toon didn’t make any sort of noise. Maybe the two are friends? Perhaps Bendy is close by?

“Hey… I’m not going to look at you, so stop breathing down my neck!”

The thing stopped making the breathing sounds, solely resorting to small growls.

“I don’t know who you are… but… I need your help!” He paused for a moment, hoping for some kind of response, but he received only growls. “My… someone… is missing and I can’t find him anywhere! I can’t help but feel a part of me is responsible for letting him run off!” another pause. He listened, hearing the growls die down, but still just as close. “Bendy is missing and I need to find him so I know he’s ok! I-I think he might be my… only friend… I need to be there for him!” now he was met with complete silence. He was about to walk away when a loud ‘TAP’ pulled his attention behind him.

A wooden Bendy cutout was standing there before him, giving him that smile. It might have been creepy had he not just been attacked by a deformed butcher gang member. He approached it and patted it between the horns. “Don’t worry pal, I’ll find you as soon as I can!” an animalistic whimper echoed down the hallway but quickly disappeared, leaving a concerned and thoroughly confused Vanitas behind.

He decided to follow the thing hoping it would lead him to where it needed to go, trying to open doors and scavenge through rooms for supplies until he finally came across a toolbox, finding a wrench in there. Great, he collected both of the gears and a wrench. Two more items to go.

A thought came to him suddenly. If there was a syringe here, than there was either a really fucked up person here once or, laying in the remains of this building sits an infirmary, although, judging by what he’s found in this god forsaken place, he’s sure both of those options were very possible and are probably the case.

He turned his attention to a seemingly darkened hallway, watching it slowly flood with ink and he had to admit, that was a bit freaky, but his attention was grabbed by a noise from the opposite hall. Whimpering. He looked over at his still bleeding arm and shrugged it off.

He was use to injuries like this, mostly from training with his master, and because he didn’t know basic magic, it was usually up to him to patch himself back up anyways. The whimper caught his attention again, so he decided to follow it, actually, it was like it was trying to lead him somewhere.

A few hallways down, his injury was beginning to concern him. His arm wasn’t going to stop bleeding and he had a lack of supplies to stop it, not to mention the nasty bruise that was forming where he had been smacked.

“Ugh, that little shit got me pretty good! He’s lucky I wasn’t at my best!” he looked up to see a sign on a door, reading it over a couple of times. In all caps, the sign read INFIRMARY. No fucking way. Whatever that thing was led him strait to it. “It can’t be that bad, I suppose!” he said aloud as he walked in to patch himself up.

He rummaged through the infirmary trying to find some gauze, finding some in in a glass case, but the damned thing was locked. He was tempted to look for the keys to it, but knowing this place, they were probably being held by the Boogie Man or something of the sort, so taking his axe back in hand once again, he aimed it at the glass, swinging as hard as he could into the case, watching the fragile material shatter all over the floor, leaving enough room for him to reach in and grab the gauze without much issue.

As he was reaching in, he took note of a syringe. “Hey, this just seems too easy, and I was expecting some kind of epic battle!” he waited a moment for irony to kick in, but nothing happened, so he took a few minutes to patch up his injuries and grab the syringe. He then thought for a moment. ‘I should be able to use this syringe to hold the ink… but maybe she won’t notice if it has some other kind of ink in it?’

Looking at a puddle on the floor, he strolled over and sucked up some ink. “I doubt she’ll even know the difference!” he had no real interest in having an encounter with this ink demon and didn’t want to risk angering it if that was what had been helping him. What did this angel even want with the demon ink?

He pocketed the syringe, hoping that it wouldn’t end up stabbing him eventually and proceeded to find the lift that Alice had mentioned. It wasn’t hard to find actually, in fact, all he really did was keep walking strait and there it was, but something was off.

Inside of the lift stood a creature. It was grinning at him as it tilted its head to the side. It looked like it had been expecting him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry for the late post. I've been trying to plan out how the next few chapters are going to work. I've got a plot to work on now, the only problem is how i'm going to initiate them. I know i'm missing a bunch of characters from this world, but i don't want to spend forever writing this one place; after all, there are other things i want to do in this fic, which means i need to shorten it up to fit what i need, in order for it to continue.


	9. The Monster of Cloud 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas returns with the required items, but it turns out, Alice Angel is a back stabbing little bitch.

Vanitas stared into the lift at the monster, watching it tilt its head to the side. It looked as if it had been expecting him.

He shrugged it off and began walking to the lift, not really scared. It he hadn’t been a creature of darkness, this thing probably would have scared him, but he was, so it didn’t. Once he was on the lift, he looked over to the creature, not quite ready to go anywhere. It was tall, maybe around 7 or 8 feet tall. Its horns were tall and sharpened to a point and it looked like it hadn’t eaten in ages, which in itself was a surprise, considering all of the soup cans he had found around the place. He looked at the lopsided bowtie that sat on its chest awkwardly and then the tail that slowly moved around.

“Umm… hey there…” he waved at it, hoping the sudden movement wouldn’t set the creature off, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It tilted its head to the other side and lifted its gloved hand to wave back. “So… you’re going to ride with me?”

Stupid question, of course it was.

He looked at its feet, taking note of how deformed they looked. One was almost backwards while the other looked like it was melting into the ground. He froze when he watched them move towards him only stopping when they appeared to be right next to his. He looked up at the creature, but didn’t do much else. He wasn’t going to swing his axe at it, which just seemed like a stupid move, and he wasn’t going to run from it, seeing as they were in such close proximity already. Its long limbs would probably catch him before he could turn around.

He managed to keep himself from flinching when it touched his injured arm. He looked up at its face, hearing it whimper through its grin. It wasn’t trying to hurt him, in fact, it seemed kind of upset that he had gotten hurt. A thought struck him.

“Hey, you know, the exit is locked right?”

It looked him in the face and nodded.

“I found out where the keys are!”

It jumped back and looked him over, probably trying to find signs of deceit.

“Yeah, that Alice girl that’s scattered around the place, you know her?”

It nodded and let out a low growl.

“She’s got them!”

The two fell silent as they stared each other down. The ink demon was pretty difficult to read, almost as difficult as Bendy was, of course, he could see into the little toons eyes, eyes that reflected pain and loneliness. This thing? It didn’t appear to have eyes on its ink covered face, but that’s just his perspective.

“She had me go and collect some things for her!” he pulled out a bunch of items from his pocket. The ink demon pointed out the syringe full of ink and Vanitas let out a low chuckle. “Alice wanted me to collect your ink, but… I don’t think she’ll be able to tell the difference between yours and this!”

A breathy laugh could be heard from the demon but it quickly quieted and pointed to a button behind him.

“Oh, right, she wanted me to meet her on floor 9!” he pushed the button, jumping back into the demon as the doors slammed shut at such a high speed and the lift began to move. He looked up at the demon as it pointed at him, its grin seemed to widen. “I wasn’t scared! The doors just… surprised me!” if this demon could speak, he’s sure it would be mocking him right about now.

As the lift moved, a new thought began to hit him. “Hey, maybe I can get your help?” he looked back at the ink demon, watching it tilt its head. “I don’t exactly trust that Alice Angel! Something about her seems kind of… she doesn’t seem like the kind of girl to keep her end of the deal, not without having some strings attached!”

He watched the demon perk up some, probably understanding where he’s coming from.

“If something goes wrong, can I count on you to be my back up?” he watched it nod quickly, ink splattering about as it did so. “Great! After this whole shit show is over, I can go back to finding Bendy!”

It tilted its head again in confusion, pointing to itself. It was Vanitas’s turn to be confused. Before he could question the ink demon, the lift halted and the doors flew open. They were on floor 9.

The two stepped off, looking around a bit. There appeared to be an open door at the bottom of a staircase, so the two made their way down to it, walking down a long, narrow hallway and at the other end of that hallway?

There were bodies!

There were so many bodies scattered about, most of them being the same character, strapped to tables and carved open. He approached one of the characters and looked at the canine features of it, taking in the look of terror that it wore. There was one thing that actually disturbed him though.

This thing looked like Goofy, or at least, like his messed up brother.

He looked over to the demon to see how it was coping with things. It wasn’t. It was shaking and growling, holding its head like it was having a panic attack. It kept looking all around it, taking in the sight and trembling even more, until Vanitas touched its gloved hand. It practically jumped out of its ink when it saw him.

“Hey, if it upsets you that much, then you can turn back! I just don’t want to put you somewhere where you won’t be comfortable!”

It shook its head and began to march forward, Vanitas in tow, that is, until it walked into the large lake of ink and didn’t emerge again from it. As concerning as that was, he wanted out of this hell hole. He looked at the wood that floated over the ink and decided to walk on those, turns out that that was a very effective decision as he made it across the lake and up to a large metal door.

He pulled out the items he had gathered and was about to leave them there when a voice spoke. It started with a giggle and then “You found everything? All of the things that I need are right there! You really are an effective errand boy, and not even one attack by the demon!”

“I got your shit, now give me those keys!”

“Yes, of course!” she sounded so delighted and sweet. “That bin there, drop the items in there and I shall deliver to you your keys!”

He looked at the bin and questioned it for a moment, but decided to drop the item in one by one, syringe being the last thing to go in. “Great, now what?”

Everything was silent for a moment. He turned to face the ink lake and watched the demon slowly start climbing out, twitching over and over again. It looked very nervous about something and now, so was Vanitas.

“Hey, those keys, I kind of need them!”

A sweet giggle was heard once again, slowly being followed up by an evil cackle. “You think I’m going to let you leave? YOU ALLOWED THE DEMON TO ENTER MY TERRITORY!” He jumped back from the door as it began to open. “HOW DARE YOU ALLOW THAT MONSTER ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR ANGEL! NOW YOU MUST DIE!!!!” The door fully opened, a bright light blinding Vanitas in the face, a loud, inhuman shriek filling the room full of bodies.

It was that god damned projectionist, but it looked wrong. It didn’t look right the first time he saw it, but now, it looked worse. It was huge, with hulking muscles, its chest cavity torn open, gears turning inside of it, the wrench jammed deep into the back of it. Each of its individual wires were connected to its chest cavity as well, attached to what looked like some kind of human heart.

“FUCK!” Was all he managed to shout out before it began charging him at such an incredibly high speed. He readied his axe, ready for its attack when a loud, blood curdling roar, the likes of which shouldn’t have come from anything of the many worlds, echoed behind him.

For a moment, he had no idea as to what was happening. He had been tossed backwards, out of somethings way. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. The ink demon was gone, replaced by some large, hulking behemoth. The two beginning their showdown.

He managed to land on his feet and watched as the two monstrosities fought, the ink monster throwing punches at the Projectionist and vice versa. The projectionist had wrestled the ink monster to the ground, the roars of their fight echoing through the large room, practically deafening Vanitas, but something did catch his eye. Movement from behind the behemoths.

That crazy ass angel was charging him. She had no weapons on her and no way of defending herself. She was mental if she thought she could defeat someone who had been trained in actual hand to hand combat. He looked into her eyes as she approached him. There was nothing there but pure instability, insanity. She hadn’t thought this through, she didn’t expect the ink demon to fight her creation and she didn’t expect Vanitas to not get killed by the ink demon. All of this had no doubt driven her to do something rash.

Once she was close enough to swing his axe at her, cutting into her side and almost slicing her in two. He watched her drop to the floor, her trembling fingers reaching out to him. Her look of desperation was too much.

Even through all of the shrieks and roars of the other fight, her words could still be heard.

“I just wanted… to be beautiful… like he promised…”

Her arm dropped to her side, her ink slowly melting away as she stared at him. He knelt down and grabbed the keys from her waist and looked into her eyes once more. He could see the pain in them so clearly, the tears she cried as she became one with the ink once more. He almost felt sorry for her.

His attention was brought back to the demon and the Projectionist, their fight finally coming to a conclusion.

The ink demon had its massive claws buried in the others chest cavity, wires torn apart and ink spewing everywhere, the monster becoming one with the ink as well. He watched the ink demon begin to melt down into a sludge-like mound, one that moved and wiggled around until it popped open like a balloon. There, standing in the middle of it, was Bendy.

He looked over to Vanitas and then ran to him with open arms. He grabbed the boys pant leg and began rubbing his face all over it, spreading around ink and tears.

Vanitas let out a chuckle and picked up the tiny toon, holding him close. “There’s one last thing I need to do on the first floor!”

Bendy looked up at him, wiping away a few tears, tilting his head to the side.

“I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, but there’s a barrier out there, draining my mana in here! I can’t leave so long as it’s up!”

Bendy nodded, and made a determined face, pointing in the direction of the lift. It appeared that he knew what had to be done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not good an writing fight scenes, but that is what these stories are for. practice.


	10. Genuine Smiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo are finally done with this world and begin preparations to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Short chapter.  
WARNING: Bendy is adorable!

Vanitas carried Bendy back to the lift, letting the little toon select the button that led to the first floor. As the lift continued to rise, he began to think about something. “She wanted your ink for something… all of the items I had found were inside of that monster!” Bendy looked up at him from his arms, tilting his head to the side. “Do you think it would have been more powerful had I actually given her your ink?”

With a shrug from the little toon, the duo continued their way up until they reached the top floor. The doors slid open and Vanitas stepped out to semi familiar territory. Bendy pointed in a direction and Vanitas followed, all of the while, curious as to where the toon was leading him. They ended up passing the exit and making their way to another room. It was boarded up, but that wasn’t an issue for him.

After putting the toon back down, the axe did good work destroying the boards, of course, it finally broke in the process and nearly took his head off as it flew into the wall behind him. Bendy looked pretty freaked out but proceeded into the doorframe, Vanitas close behind.

Right in the middle of the room, being held up by chains, sat a very large, bulky and obstructive machine that dripped ink like nothing he had ever seen. The thing looked like it should weigh a ton and yet it was being held in midair. Bendy managed to grab his attention again with a loud, ear piercing whistle. He pointed over to a large lever on the wall.

“Right, a lever! I suppose that’s pretty self-explanatory?” he pulled the lever down, hearing a loud whirring sound followed by a loud puff sound, proceeded by silence. He looked at the machine again, noting its gears weren’t turning anymore and no ink was dripping from it.

He looked over to see Bendy making cheering motions, holding flags and wearing some kind of hat. Where did he even get those? He was about to say something when a loud crashing sound from overhead caught his attention.

The toon seemed pretty startled and began growling at his surroundings, his teeth quickly becoming sharp and his tail whipping back and forth quickly, but no other sounds came.

A sudden burst of mana hit Vanitas like a train as it flooded his veins, Bendy probably felt the same thing, and there was only one thing that this could mean. The barrier was gone. He could leave this place, head back to that god damn tower the old wizard calls a home. He walked out and back to the exit, dodging the pipe that sat on the floor, Bendy following him happily.

He pulled out the keys and began fiddling with them, trying to find the right one and when he did, he swung the door open, light flooding the small hallway. He took a step outside and took in a deep breath of fresh air but turned to look back when the toon hadn’t followed him.

Bendy hadn’t left the hallway yet. He stared out at Vanitas and began to wave to him sadly, probably saying goodbye, but Vanitas just let out a laugh. “What the hell are you doing Bendy? You’re coming with me, right?”

The toon looked up at him like he had heard him wrong but when Vanitas held out his hand, Bendys whole universe lit up. He didn’t take Vanitas’s hand. He jumped into Vanitas’s arms and tears began to fall from his eyes.

Vanitas hugged him back, not sure what else to do. Why was he crying? He was completely unaware of this toons background, unaware of those 100 years he’d spent alone. He didn’t know why this toon was so happy.

There was no way he could use the keyblade to travel space with the toon, so his dark portal would have to do, unless…

“Hey Bendy, do you need to breath?”

The toon pulled its face out of his chest and wiped away some tears, shaking his head.

“Did you want to see what it’s like up there?” he gestured up to the sky. Bendy leapt out of his arms and was suddenly wearing a space helmet. He nodded rapidly, jumping up and down.

He smirked at the toon, but summoned his keyblade and activated his armor, the toon both shocked and surprised by the items. “Hop on!” he pointed to his shoulders and Bendy did as instructed. “Now, hold on tight!”

This was probably the happiest Bendy had ever been, it his face didn’t make it obvious, his child-like bouncing did. He was excited to say the least.


	11. Outside Lies Another World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Color and grass is a new concept to Bendy, but he will have to experience it at its finest later.  
The duo make it back to the tower safely and Bendy gets to see fairies for the first time.

The duo set off, flying back to the tower, Vanitas telling Bendy about the people that he would meet there, although, he wasn’t sure Bendy was paying much attention, since he kept pointing out flying rocks, space debris and other worlds. The ‘Mysterious Tower’ wasn’t that far away, so there wasn’t too much to worry about.

Bendy kept staring out at the worlds, intrigued to know that there was more out there than just the studio. He knew he was annoying his new friend with his pointing and bouncing, but he just couldn’t help it, it was all so new and fascinating but that was when he saw ‘it’.

He froze to stare at the beauty of it. There was a large arch of colors fading and reappearing over a brightly colored world. There were so many colors in it, but he couldn’t even begin to name them, color was a pretty new concept to him after all, but he was completely taken by it.

Vanitas seemed to have noticed the lack of movement and spoke up. “You okay there Bendy?”

The toon looked at him and pointed out that colorful world, waving his pointed finger in that direction.

“Oh that? That’s another world!” When Bendy didn’t stop pointing at it, he decided to continue. “It’s called Neverland! I can take you there at some point if you’d like?”

Bendys eyes lit up and he nodded, definitely wanting to see it. He pointed to it once more, wanting to hear more about it.

“We’re almost there so I’ll give a quick summary! There are Fairies, Pirates, Mermaids, Indians, Ect…” he looked back at the toon. “I’m sure you get the idea!”

The toon nodded, taking note of an approaching tower. And how Vanitas shifted his weight to start landing. Bendy pointed at the tower and tilted his head.

“Yup, that’s home base for now! It’s called the ‘Mysterious Tower’!”

The landing went pretty smooth, with Bendy crawling off of his friend so he could remove his armor once they were safe on the ground. As Vanitas began taking the path towards the door, Bendy stopped him and pointed the green that carpeted the ground.

“That’s just grass! You’ll find it just about every-” he didn’t have the chance to finish. Bendy was all over it. He had to admit that it was amusing, watching the toon roll around in the grass like that just emanated innocence, and he probably would have thought as much to had he not witnessed him commit cartoon slaughter a couple of hours prior. “What, is it that interesting?”

Bendy strolled back over to him with a significant bounce in his step, his grin never wavering once. He stopped a few feet away from Vanitas, staring at the ground with curiosity. He picked up a rock and studied it for a moment and showed it to his friend.

“Yes, that is a rock… Wait, what…” Vanitas watched the toon shove it in his mouth and try to chew on it, spitting it out almost immediately after. “HAHAH! Yeah, rocks aren’t exactly edible!” he was laughing. Vanitas was laughing and he didn’t know why. He’s never actually laughed like that before.

Bendy pointed at the large double doors, probably having enough of the bland world.

“Yeah, you’re right! We should probably make our way inside now! You can finally meet the assholes that are at the top!”

The black and white toon hopped over to his friend and grabbed his hand, dragging him to the doors, but found he couldn’t reach the handles, so he let his friend deal with that instead.

On the inside, there was basically an empty room with a spiraling staircase leading to the top of the tower. Bendy was never really good at stairs and just kind of stared at them as Vanitas took a couple of steps up, his own short legs not being very useful for climbing. His other form had some kind of defect where the leg bent backwards, so using the stairs in that form wasn’t exactly an option either.

He let out a whimper through his grin as he watched Vanitas continue the climb, and then held out his arms. He had no chance of climbing unless he crawled.

The taller male felt kind of bad to the toon, the curse of being either short or deformed not being convenient at all so he walked back down the steps he took to pick the ink demon up and began the long trek up the stairs, putting the toon down at the top.

He opened the door just a bit and peered into the room, taking note of only a few people. Yen Sid sat at his desk writing some papers, Aqua sat on a couch reading a book, Sora was talking with Mickey, Donald and Goofy, the three good fairies were having what looked like a tea party and Lea was practicing summoning and unsummoning his keyblade.

He put Bendy down and decided to kick the door open the rest of the way, alerting everyone to his arrival.

The small group all looked at him with wide eyes, the loud sound of the door hitting the wall behind it sending a sense of shock through them all.

Aqua dropped her book, stood and ran over to him, pulling him into a quick hug and then checking him over for any injuries. “Oh thank goodness you didn’t get hurt!”

“Hey, the jerk’s back!” Lea said with amusement, earning a glare from the blunette. He put his hands up defensively, continuing with whatever he was doing.

Vanitas was about to retort when Aqua spoke again. “What happened? Is everything okay? What happened over there?”

“Aqua, I’m fine, stop mothering me! It’s making me uncomfortable!” she backed away and rubbed one of her arms awkwardly as she gave him an apologetic look.

Sora was the one to notice Bendy standing behind the other male. “Hey Vanitas, who’s that with you?” Mickey, Donald and Goofy all looked as well, trying to see who it was.

Aqua, Lea, Yen Sid and the three fairies all looked as well.

“Uh… this is… Bendy!” glancing down at the toon, he waited for him to move. Bendy was frozen. He stared at Goofy like the guy had grown a second head. “Hey Bendy, do uh… you want to say hi?”

Sure, the toon never stopped grinning, but Vanitas knew exactly what the little guy was thinking. ‘This guy looks like Boris!’ his dead friend. With a nudge of the foot, Bendy snapped out of it and looked at everyone else. He did a little dance and waved hello, ending it with a bow.

“Vanitas…” Aqua started.

Mickey decided to continue that thought. “You brought someone from another world with you?”

“What was I supposed to do, leave him to die in an eternal pit of suffering?”

“No, but…” Aqua continued.

“Aqua, you’re the one who wanted me to make some friends!” his blue eyes pierced through her.

She nodded but snapped back. “I said make some friends, not destroy the world order!”

Yen Sid stood and spoke. “That is enough!”

The group all turned to face him, awaiting judgment. “I have looked into the world he has come from, and I believe Vanitas has made the right choice in bringing Bendy with him to safety!”

“But master Yen Sid…” Donald looked between the warlock and the toon.

The warlock held up a hand and looked down at Bendy. “Bendy, you have seen other worlds and have met your first friend!” he looked over to the group, expecting someone to cut in, but all remained silent. “Vanitas, I would like to ask for some more help, but first, we must teach you how to use magic! If the two of you plan to travel together, then you will both need to be prepared!”

Yen Sid pointed to a door and informed him that he would be teaching him basic magic, and then looked at the toon. “Bendy, while I teach Vanitas basic magic, I would like you to go to the other room with the three good fairies!”

Bendy tilted his head and then looked at the three floating women, taking note of their wings and wands. He had never once in his life seen a fairy, and he wasn’t about to pass up this chance now. He ran to them, bouncing up and down like an excited child.

He turned his head to watch his friend disappear through the door and then turned back to the trio of fairies, ready for whatever was about to happen. They gestured towards a different door on the other side of the building, their gentle smiles guiding him to the other room.

Once the door was shut, he took a seat near a large mirror.

“Dear, would it be alright if we asked a few questions?” Fauna, the green fairy asked sweetly.

Bendy nodded, his grin becoming a bit unnerving.

Mary Weather, the blue fairy looked at him and gave a suspicious look. “Are you able to do anything other than smile?”

When he shook his head, the three gasped is shock. Flora, the pink fairy smiled again. “Well, that’s alright! How would you like it if we gave you other expressions?”

Bendy tilted his head and gave a hand gesture, asking them to elaborate.

The blue one spoke again. “You know, sadness, anger, joy, surprise, all of those kinds of things and more!”

The toons eyes widened with those words and he nodded, definitely wanting to be able to express more.

“Did you want a voice?” The green one spoke next.

Bendy thought for a moment, considering it. A voice would be pretty cool, but why would he need one? He already knew how much words could hurt.

He shook his head. He didn’t want to hurt others with words as much as they have hurt him.

The group look surprised but continued on. They waved their wants around before the pink one spoke. “Alright then, but if you ever would like a voice, just let us know!”

Their magic kind of tickled. It felt like butterflies were kissing his face, which was a new sensation for him, and he kind of liked it. Joey had always told him that this kind of thing would hurt, but the fairies were so gentle with their magic.

He was going to have to show his friend when he was done training.


	12. Praise and Depression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas learns he has some skill in magic, and Bendy learns that he cant be around Goofy.

Vanitas walked into the training room realizing that he wasn’t going to get out of this. He honestly had no talent for magic but he didn’t want to admit that in front of anyone. Ventus and Terra were currently occupying the room, casting spells, swinging their keyblades and whatever else.

“Come on Ven, we taught you better than that!” Terra laughed out.

Ven snorted and propelled himself at the brunette. Terra hopped out the way and gave the blonde a small push, sending Ventus to the floor. He sat for a moment, dumbfounded, quickly deciding to shoot back. “If you’d hold still for a moment, maybe I could get you!”

The two were laughing, even Aqua seemed amused.

“Okay boys! We’re going to need to occupy the room for a bit!” Aqua smiled at the pair.

Without a single complaint, the two walked out. Not a single complaint, what was that about?

“Vanitas? Are you ready?” She smirked. “I will be your training partner!”

He stared at her with wide blue eyes, a bit nervous. He wasn’t exactly ready to get his ass beaten by a girl, he especially wasn’t ready to have his arms or legs broken, then again, that was his old masters way. Maybe they won’t punish him if he fails?

Aqua gestured to a spot in the room, clearly expecting him to go there.

“Why do I need to learn magic exactly?”

“No one here wants to see you get hurt and now that you’ve chosen to bring an “other worlder” with you, you’ll have to be ready to protect him!”

He rolled his eyes at Aquas logic. He held out his hand, allowing the darkness to start seeping through his skin. “If I need to, I can just use the darkness!”

“No! We do not turn to the darkness, now bring out your keyblade!”

“Why?”

“You don’t know how to use magic right? Your keyblade will help you focus your abilities!”

Vanitas reluctantly did as he was told, cursing under his breath as his keyblade was summoned.

“Alright, now then, I want you to point it at me and focus!”

\---

Bendy waited outside of the room with Sora, Lea, Ventus, Terra, Donald, Goofy and Mickey. He kept stealing quick, uncomfortable glances at Goofy and his staring definitely didn’t go unnoticed by anyone.

Mickey was the first to talk. “So, Bendy… what uh… how are you?”

The toon gave the mouse an odd look. ‘Golly, this is weird!’ he thought to himself. He frowned a bit and gave a shrug, tilting his head side to side. He had denied the gift of voice from the fairies. They already allowed him to express his emotions, he didn’t want to take them for all they had.

“You uh… keep giving Goofy a strange look… what’s going on?”

The toon pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil from seemingly nowhere and began writing. ‘It’s nothing really! He just looks like an old friend of mine!’

“What is your friend’s name?” Goofy seemed curious now.

Bendy looked at the floor sadly, but wrote some more. ‘I don’t want to talk about it!’

“Why not? Did something happen to him?” Donald couldn’t keep quiet either.

‘Yeah, the Angel got him…’

Terra frowned a bit, the answer being off putting. “Angels are supposed to be a good thing though, right?”

Bendy scowled at him and wrote some more. ‘She is no Angel! She is a monster!’ once he was sure they read his message, he crumbled up the paper, threw it into a nearby wastebasket and ran out of the room, down the stairs and out of the tower, ignoring their shouts for him to ‘come back’.

\---

Fire practically shit out of his keyblade when he tried fire magic, ice magic came out as a small mist, wind came as a small breeze, thunder didn’t do squat, water came like a sad water gun, he wasn’t able to heal for crap, but he was adept with gravity. He was starting to lose his patience now.

Aqua was standing on the ceiling at this point due to gravity and decided to make her way over, finding a place that broke gravity. She approached him carefully, seeing his frustration and placed a hand on his shoulder. She felt concern when he flinched, but continued with what she was doing. “That’s fantastic Vanitas! You can change gravity!”

He gave her a blank look, like he was trying to register what she just said.

“You obviously have to work on other types of magic, but I just know you’ll get there with a little bit of training!” her smile was genuine, she kind of looked like a mother who was very proud of her child for just trying to do something.

Why was it so hard to hate her? He just didn’t have it in himself to be angry at her. “Why the hell are you praising me? I failed so miserably!”

“I’m praising you because I’m proud of you! Vanitas, I know you aren’t skilled at magic, but the mere fact that you tried is what makes me proud of you!”

He could feel his face start to heat up. Was he embarrassed? “How did you know about my magic?”

“You never really used it before, so I assumed that ‘he’ never taught you!” by ‘he’, she was referring to Xehanort.

He would have retorted back if Yen Sid hadn’t decided they were done for now, so the three of them strolled out of the room to see how everyone was doing.

Everyone outside of the room was uncomfortably quiet. Vanitas looked around the room and then to the group. “Hey, where’s Bendy?”

Goofy was the one to respond. “Well, gawrsh, the little fella went running out of the building, and I can’t help but feel I had something to do with it!”

“It wasn’t your fault Goofy, it was Terra’s!” Donald glared at the brunette.

“Me? I wasn’t the one he was staring at!”

“Guys, stop!” Sora and Ventus shot in front of the group and tried to break up a fight before it could start.

Goofy stared at the door and walked over to it. “I’m gonna go make sure the little guy is ok! He seemed pretty upset!”

The group watched Goofy head out to find the little toon and prayed that he would be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I just couldn't figure out how to write this without making it sound weird. Next chapter is going to be a bit of filler, it will have a strengthened relationship though. Poor Bendy cant stand to be around Goofy.  
Stay tuned to see what happens when Goofy decides to talk to Bendy alone!


	13. Bonds of Emotions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonding Experiences Ahead

Bendy wasn’t too hard for Goofy to find. He was sitting on the edge of the world, his legs dangling over.

He kept staring out at the stars sadly, thinking about how Boris would have loved to see this, how Boris could have met Vanitas and the three would be best friends. He was so lost in thought, he didn’t even hear the footsteps approaching him from behind.

“Hey there Bendy!” Goofy greeted, causing the little demon to jump and twirl his head around, eyes wide. He stared at the toon for a moment and then at the ground next to him. “Mind if I sit down?”

Bendy’s mouth dropped open for a second or two, but he quickly closed it. With a shake of his head, he patted the ground next to him, not wanting to seem rude. He was kind of embarrassed already for storming off like that.

Goofy plopped down next to him, dangling his legs off of the ledge as well and staring out at the stars with the toon for a few minutes. “Are ya missing your friend?” he looked at the toon who sat frozen.

Bendy nodded, refusing to look at Goofy.

Said dog looked back at the sky and frowned. “I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable or made you upset!”

Bendy looked at Goofy with another wide eyed expression, but shook his head. That apology came practically out of nowhere. The goof looked at him with sad eyes, and Bendy swore he felt his inky heart stop.

“I understand what it feels like to miss someone so very dear to your heart!”

Bendy scrambled to pull out a piece of paper and a pen and began writing. ‘What do you mean you understand? How could you possibly understand how I feel? I bet you’ve never had someone you care about die!’ black, inky tears began to fall from his pie-cut eyes as painful memories began to flood back, his form beginning to melt.

Goofy seemed surprised and then turned his attention back to the sky once again. “Ya’know, my wife passed away just after giving birth to my son!”

The toon looked shocked. For some reason, he had thought all of these bad things could only happen to him. Tilting his head, he wrote some more. ‘Arent you mad at your son?’

The goof read the message and gave a sad smile. “No… I could never bring myself to be mad at him, besides, I know my wife never really left me!”

‘What do you mean? She’s gone, she’s never coming back!’

With an understanding nod he gave a smile. “She never really left me because I can still remember her! She has always been my greatest memory!”

Bendy stopped writing so he could wipe his tears away. He felt a bit embarrassed for crying in front of someone.

“So long as you truly cherish your friendship, your friend will never leave you! He’ll always be in your heart and you’ll always be in his, no matter how far apart the two of you may feel, after all, true friends stay forever… beyond words, beyond distance and beyond time!”

The two sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Goofy started to get up. “Everyone is worried about ya…”

Bendy grabbed onto him before he could fully stand up, dropping his paper in the process. He was still crying, but he felt a bit more at ease. How angry had he been at his creators for taking his best friend away, or at Alice for taking him away a second time? A third, fourth, fifth…

He reached out for the paper he dropped and wrote on it again. ‘How are you so calm about it? Your wife is gone, your son if so far away… How could I feel better when Boris is gone forever?’

With a smile, Goofy hugged the little toon close. He wasn’t too worried about being covered in ink, after all, the little guy needed it. “I found friends that were willing to stay by my side no matter what! Bendy, everyone here, we’re all your friends, even if we haven’t known each other for very long!”

The hug was kind of nice, comforting even. He could feel his form start to slowly stabilize and the tears begin to dry. He had never thought about things like that before, but it was a nice thought. Alice and Joey aren’t here, they can’t hurt him and they won’t be able to hurt his new friends.

Once he finally stopped hyperventilating, the Goof stood up, Bendy in his arms. “Do’ya want to come back inside now? I bet Vanitas would be happy to take you with him wherever he goes!”

The little toon was practically beaming. He began bouncing in Goofy’s arms like a happy child, swinging his legs excitedly. He nodded and the two headed back inside.

Bendy stared up at Goofy. No, this definitely wasn’t Boris, the feeling he got from Goofy was similar to when Henry was around. He had an adoration and great respect for the Goof suddenly. ‘Hmm… what would I call Goofy… a father figure?’ he hugged the Goofy Goof again, his smile still on his face.


	14. Old Toon, New Tricks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bendy shows what he can do and a new world if discovered.

The walk up the stairs felt long but Bendy and Goofy made it back up. Goofy put the little toon down and opened the door, finding the group they had left talking amongst themselves.

“Well hi’ya Fellers! Wa’cha talking about?” The duo walked in, both pretty curious.

Terra turned to look at them and then pointed to the little demon. “We think it would be a good idea to train Bendy, see what he can do!”

Vanitas interrupted. “I told you guys, he is perfectly capable of fending for himself!”

“We want to make sure he can defend himself and you!” Aqua rested a hand on his shoulder, her face showing concern.

“He took out a projector Vanitas, that isn’t an accomplishment!” the brunette didn’t seem that impressed.

“Not a projector, the projectionist! It’s completely different!”

Bendy watched this argument go back and forth for a bit, only for it to end with Vanitas’s loss. He could understand why they wanted to test him, after all, why would they want to send someone who couldn’t defend themselves into combat?

With a loud whistle, he caught their attention. He pointed at the door and nodded, a large grin spreading across his face.

Terra nodded. “Yes, that is the room we will be testing you in!”

Bendy practically jumped for joy and rushed over to it, needing to jump to access the door knob. He ran inside and started to look around, but there wasn’t much there. There were a few bookshelves and a rug on the floor, but that was it.

Sora walked in and watched the toon get slowly put out but laughed. “Bendy, Don’t look so sad! Trust me, things will get livelier in here!”

With another glance around the room and a distrustful look, the toon nodded and folded his arms. He watched the warlock walk in along with Vanitas, Aqua, Goofy, Donald and Mickey. Terra and Ventas were the last ones to walk in.

“Bendy,” Yen Sid glanced towards the toon. “I would like to point out a few things!”

The demon stared at him, practically burrowing holes into the warlocks head with his eyes.

“This training room will allow us to see what you can do and how you do it, it also responds to how you act, increasing in level as you progress!”

He nodded, and looked around, not expecting much, jumping when he saw the bookshelf directly behind him. He poked it and in response, it shot a book in his face, and that book didn’t seem to want to leave him.

The group watched as the toon began pulling at it, watched as it stuck itself to him, until he finally got it off, his face going with it.

“BENDY! YOUR FACE!” Vanitas called out in a panic.

Bendy slapped the book back onto his face with put his eyes and mouth back into place. He was starting to get a bit frustrated and decided to throw the book back at the bookshelf who gladly threw it back at him, and another, and another.

He was now dodging books left and right, taking notice of how they were swirling around the room in the air, being held by nothing. A book ended up hitting him in the back of the head, sending him face first into the floor.

He lay there tapping his fingers on the floor, definitely irritated now. He eyed the bookshelf and he swore to Lucifer that it was laughing at him. A bookshelf was laughing at him and he just let it happen. ‘Ooh, the cartoonists would be getting a kick out of this!’

He stood up, glaring at it and then thought. He didn’t want to scare his new friends with his ‘Ink demon’ form or his ‘Beast’ form, so he would just have to win this battle in his cartoon form.

He made a serious face, which, on him, looked a bit silly, and charged the bookshelf, leaping into the air, using floating books as leverage and as he came down on the his foe, he reached behind him and pulled out an anvil, being sure to throw it on top of it, crushing the bookcase instantly.

He smiled victoriously, that is, until another book attacked him from behind. He looked around, noticing how the books were stationary and he felt like he was being hunted. The books flew down at him all at once and he just barely managed to dodge them. He pulled out a mallet and attacked a few with it, making them vanish into a burst of paper.

One had managed to get him from the side and he dropped his mallet and his head which went rolling around.

He could hear everyone panic when this happened and all of the books fell at once.

“Oh my… Bendy!” Aqua was about to rush over when she saw his body still wondering around headless, searching the floor for its missing head. It took it a bit but it found its head and put it back onto its shoulders.

The toon smiled at her but looked around at the books. He walked over to one and kicked it, making a vow never to trust a floating book again. He stuck out his black, forked tongue out at the broken bookshelf, panicking when it began to repair itself and float back into its original place, the books on the floor floating back as well.

He glared at the warlock, crossed his arms and began tapping his foot. He gestured towards the bookcase and made a questioning face. The great thing about being a cartoon character, everyone can pretty much see what you’re thinking just by looking at you.

“You are wondering why I stopped the training session, is this correct?”

Yen Sid was so hard to read, his face always this intense stare.

“I stopped it because everyone was worried, myself included! It is not common for someone to lose their head and then recover as if it is no concern!”

The toon scowled and pouted a bit. He knew he was resilient but they didn’t and it was a bit troublesome. He was just going to have to try again and this time, it wasn’t going to matter what form he took, he was definitely going to destroy that bookshelf.

He pointed to the bookshelf, looking between it and the warlock with a determined expression.

“You wish to try again?”

With a nod, the toon faced the bookcase and prepared himself for books in the face. He watched it animate to life once again, but the little toon was ready this time. Before it could chuck a book at him, he threw some of his extra thick ink into its shelves, preventing it from shooting out books as it pleased.

He pulled out a new mallet from seemingly nowhere and bashed the bookshelf into the ground, smiling triumphantly, that is, until it started moving. He let out a verbal growl and began violently thrashing it with whatever he could think of. If he could think of it, he could pull it from hammer space.

More bookshelves were after him now, but that didn’t exactly phase him. Somehow, in his mind, these bookshelves had turned into the creators which riled him up enough to go to all-out war with them.

Everything was going pretty good, he even forgot he was being watched, that was where things went downhill. A bookshelf rammed into him from the front, sending him flying. During this entire fight, he had been throwing ink at these things, hitting walls, the floor and the ceiling, and now, he was about to take advantage of that.

As he flew through the air, he aimed himself at one of the puddles, falling through it and out of another one from the ceiling. He had his mallet ready, preparing to bash in one of the bookshelves, but was cut off by a flying book. He hit the floor, but didn’t land in a puddle and he could feel his frustration turn into wrath.

He stood and let out a menacing Ink Demon roar, claws beginning to poke through his gloves and ink starting to drip down his face and over his eyes.

The warlock seemed to notice something dangerous was about to happen and stopped the training. Bendy had managed to go further in the levels than anyone there, but the way he seemed to get more irritated when he got hit, the more his emotions would dive-bomb.

Bendy looked around, remembering that he was being watched by people. He looked over at them and shook his head to remove the excess ink that flooded down. He smiled at the group and skipped over to them happily.

The group seemed uncomfortable, excluding Vanitas who kind of already knew about this stuff.

“Bendy, you’ve made it further in training than anyone else here, however…”

The toon glanced up at the warlock, a bit concerned for what he had to say.

“Your temper seems to be something you must work on! It blinds you and sends you into a frenzy which could eventually lead to you hurting someone you care about!”

Bendy flinched at the statement but understood. He’s already done that, and he regretted it, that is, until that certain someone killed his best friend several times over.

“Vanitas, Bendy, follow me! I would like to give the two of you a new mission!”

The two seemed surprised but agreed. They followed, the others in the room close behind them.

Yen Sid took a seat at his desk and eyed the duo that stood before him, well, he looked at Vanitas, Bendy was hardly visible from where he sat.

“I have located a new world but I can’t get a good view of it! I suspect that the journals may have originated there!”


	15. Gravity Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Gravity Falls!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this chapter is a little fast paced, but enjoy reading it.

“Wait, are you serious?” Vanitas stared the warlock down, looking for the joke.

Bendy looked at Vanitas and tilted his head, not really knowing what there “Journals” are, but going with it anyways.

With a nod, Yen Sid continued. “This world may be the origin of the journals, however, something is preventing me from studying it from afar! I would like the two of you to investigate it, and see if you find anything strange!”

“Just don’t bring those weird things home with you!” Terra chimed in, a smirk on his face as he looked between Vanitas and the toon, only to get elbowed by Aqua for the comment.

Vanitas just waved off the brunettes comment. “Yeah, yeah, no more weirdness!” turning his attention back to the warlock before him, he spoke again. “And where exactly is this world?”

“Perhaps a map will suffice?” a nod from Vanitas and he was waving a hand in the air, a map forming with the location of this new world and other discovered worlds, Bendys included.

He looked at the map a bit more and finally found the clouded area, the map showing it in bright blues and pinks, then choosing to show Bendy and point it out. The little toon nods to show he understands, a grin spreading across his face.

“Well then, I guess we’re off!” he shoved the map into his pocket and began heading out with Bendy hot on his heels.

The flight there was interesting, but Vanitas luckily had unversed to fight off the heartless. That’s just one of the niceties of being forged from darkness he guessed. Bendy clung to his leg as they flew through the infinite void, the fear of letting go and being lost to the void at the front of his mind.

He watched Neverland go by, the rainbow of the world shimmering in invitation. He tugged at Vanitas’s leg and pointed to it.

The two stared at it for a moment. “Ok, how about this Bendy, if we can go to this new world and complete the mission, I’ll take you there and tell you what I know about Neverland!” the toon eyed him suspiciously. “It’s a promise!”

The sparkle in the little devils eyes was enough to make anyone smile. The toon nodded in excitement and the two continued on their way to the new world. It was fast approaching and the pair were surprised to see a town surrounded by trees, and decided it to be best to land on the tree line so no one would see them.

“Ok Bendy, I don’t think anyone saw us!” the two approached the town, the pleasant aroma of pie in the air. They took notice of how people were strolling around, happy as can be, only to jump out of their skins when someone behind them spoke, more like yelled; Bendy literally, Vanitas metaphorically.

“WELL HEY THERE!”

They turned and found a young girl with brown hair, wearing a pink sweater and a purple skirt. Her braces showing with her smile.

“Mabel, don’t run off like that!” a boy with brown hair approached. He was wearing a white and blue hat, a dark blue vest over an orange shirt and shorts.

The girl who they assumed was Mabel pointed at them and smiled at the boy who looked pretty identical to her. “I told you I saw something Dipper and I was right!” she did a small victory dance and then looked at the two. “Hi there, I’m Mabel!” she looked at Vanitas for a moment. “But you can call me the girl of your dreams!” Dipper frowned at her disapprovingly as she flirted with this new guy. “The sweaty spoiled sport over there is my twin, Dipper!”

Dipper shifted around uncomfortably, jumping when Mabel let out a squeal. “What happened?”

“You are so adorable!” she was hugging Bendy, the little toon shocked about what was happening, and then trying to get away from the tight embrace. “And what is your name?”

Dipper stared at Bendy for a moment and then at Vanitas. “You don’t look familiar… are you new here?”

“Yeah… no, we’re just visiting!”

Mabel let go of Bendy and ran next to her brother, arms outstretched, a huge smile on her face. “Well then, welcome to Gravity Falls, stranger!”

Dipper squinted at the two with suspicion. “What exactly are your names, and what are you?” the last question was more pointed towards the demon than Vanitas.

“Right, I’m Vanitas and this is Bendy! I’m a monster forged from pure darkness and Bendy here is… I actually don’t really know what Bendy is!”

Another suspicious glance from the male twin. “Very suspicious!”

“Come on bro bro, he’s probably joking!”

“Yeah, probably! Or maybe he just told us that so we’d think he was joking!”

Mabel began pushing Dipper away and smiled at them again. “Don’t mind him, he’s just paranoid! Hey, you two should come by the Mystery Shack some time and have a look around! Don’t worry, I can ask my Gruncle Stan to let you in!”

Dipper shrugged his sister off of him and began walking himself but looked back at them again. “Keep an eye out! A lot of strange things happen here!” and just like that, the twins were gone, leaving Bendy and Vanitas alone.

“Strange things? What kind of strange things?” Vanitas looked at the little toon who returned the stare with a shrug. “I guess we’ll find out, wont we?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this first chapter. Chapters will not be posted on a regular schedule but are quite enjoyable to write, even if it has been a while *Laughs nervously*  
Tags, fandoms, rating and characters may change as this story goes along, mainly by adding things


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